In recent years, a large-capacity magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) using a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) element has been expected and attracting attention. An MTJ element includes a tunnel barrier layer and two magnetic layers sandwiching the tunnel barrier layer, one of the two magnetic layers being a magnetization fixed layer (reference layer) in which the magnetization is fixed so that the direction of magnetization does not change, the other being a magnetization free layer (storage layer) which the direction of magnetization may be easily reversed. Further, in some cases, a shift cancelling layer is provided to suppress the influence of fringing field.